Courier-Journal.com – By Tamara Ikenberg
Dirty old man – Film icon John Waters brings his ‘Filthy World’ to Louisville
The freak prince of film has come full circle.
John Waters is a Broadway mogul a la Mel Brooks, a distinguished man of the arts and a self-proclaimed “documentary whore,” sought out for quotes on every counter-cultural topic.
The musical version of his cult 1988 movie “Hairspray” became a mega-hit on Broadway in 2002. Next year, a film version of the musical, currently being filmed in Toronto with an all-star cast, will be released.
All eyes will likely be on John Travolta. He’s taking on the cross-dressing role of plump, beehive-coiffed Edna Turnblad, mother of spunky plus-sized sweetheart Tracy. Edna was played by Waters’ dear friend, the late Divine, in the original film. Also in the works for Waters is a Broadway version of “Cry-Baby,” his campy 1990 flick starring Johnny Depp as a pomade-slicked juvenile delinquent in the 1950s.
Waters will be in Louisville tonight to perform “This Filthy World,” a monologue that maps out his remarkably rebellious career. The one-man show was just made into a film by Jeff Garlin, of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”